Handbook home
Legal Leadership Essentials (LAWS90226)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Online
From 2023 most subjects will be taught on campus only with flexible options limited to a select number of postgraduate programs and individual subjects.
To learn more, visit COVID-19 course and subject delivery.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
March
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 6190
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
August
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 6190
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | March - Online August - Online |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
This subject will provide students with an understanding of key concepts in the field of leadership and enable them to more effectively assume leadership responsibilities within organisations, legal practices and/or the community more broadly. The subject aims to give students not only a theoretical understanding of leadership but practical skills and approaches that they can enact both during the course and subsequently to enhance their careers and impact. The subject focuses on the particular challenges and opportunities for lawyers seeking to have impact in modern organisations and the community through leadership. The modes of instruction will include experiential learning, transformative learning, collaborative learning and guest speaker presentations. Students will draw on their own experience of leadership (as both leaders and followers) as well as biographical and hypothetical case studies in leadership. This subject is designed for students who have worked in organisations or legal practices and who have an interest in assuming leadership responsibilities.
Principal topics include:
- A brief modern history of leadership (tracing the evolution of leadership from the industrial age to the present)
- Lawyers as leaders (the role of advocacy, emotional stability, expertise and objectivity in modern leadership)
- Harnessing human motivation
- Authority and leadership
- Leading in complexity
- Leading change
- The psychology of judgment and decision making (as individuals and in groups)
- Self as leader (preferences for behaviour, emotional intelligence, self-awareness and cognitive flexibility)
- Sustainable leadership
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Understand the evolution of leadership and the principles and importance of effective leadership in modern organisations and the community more generally;
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of human motivation, the performance of human systems and the drivers of human behaviour.
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of group dynamics and the importance of diversity, inclusiveness and psychological safety in using groups to solve complex problems.
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of the principles of complex adaptive systems and the tools for influencing them.
- Demonstrate a deep appreciation of the key mindsets and behaviours of effective modern leaders including: cognitive flexibility, emotional agility, pragmatic optimism, comfort in complexity, advanced judgment and decision-making, self-compassion, integrity and values congruence;
- Understand the importance of self-awareness, self-compassion and reflective capability in developing a sustainable leadership practice.
Generic skills
- Well-developed analytical competencies in legal leadership and management;
- Problem solving abilities, including through the collection and evaluation of information;
- Capacity to communicate, orally and in writing;
- Ability to evaluate and synthesise existing knowledge in the area;
- Capacity for critical, ethical and independent thought and reflection;
- Capacity for self-directed learning, organisation and time management.
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Recommended background knowledge
Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are offered in the discipline of law at an advanced graduate level. While every effort will be made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, concessions will not be made in the general level of instruction or assessment. Most subjects assume the knowledge usually acquired in a degree in law (LLB, JD or equivalent). Applicants should note that admission to some subjects in the Legal Leadership program will be dependent upon the individual applicant’s educational background and professional experience.
Melbourne Law Masters students
Students in the Melbourne Law Masters program who would like to take this subject as an elective need to have a minimum of 2-5 years relevant work experience to be eligible to enrol.
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Written Assignment - Case Study Report
| March offering: 22 April 2022 August offering: 9 September 2022 | 35% |
Reflective Journal
| March offering: 13 May 2022 August offering: 30 September 2022 | 15% |
Essay (list of topics to choose from will be provided)
| March offering: 8 June 2022 August offering: 26 October 2022 | 50% |
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
- March - Online
Coordinator Anthony Kearns Mode of delivery Online Contact hours The March offering runs fully online over the following dates: Wednesday 16 March, Thursday 17 March, Wednesday 6 April, Thursday 7 April and Thursday 28 April Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching start date 16 February 2022 Pre teaching requirements Please refer to the Reading Guide on the LMS subject page for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 16 March 2022 to 28 April 2022 Last self-enrol date 14 November 2021 Census date 17 March 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 6 May 2022 Assessment period ends 8 June 2022 March contact information
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 6190
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au - August - Online
Coordinator Anthony Kearns Mode of delivery Online Contact hours The August offering runs (via live Zoom) on the following dates: Wednesday 3 August, Thursday 4 August, Wednesday 24 August, Thursday 25 August and Thursday 15 September Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching start date 6 July 2022 Pre teaching requirements Please refer to the Reading Guide on the LMS subject page for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 3 August 2022 to 15 September 2022 Last self-enrol date 14 November 2021 Census date 4 August 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 23 September 2022 Assessment period ends 26 October 2022 August contact information
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 6190
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Additional delivery details
This subject has a quota of 25 students per offering.
Enrolment is subject to an application process. Waitlists are maintained for subjects that are fully subscribed.
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
Specialist materials will be made available prior to the pre-teaching period.
- Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Last updated: 31 January 2024